Sunday, 6 September 2009

The pressures of everyday life mean that emergency measures of some shape or form are called for ever-mroe often - But just how effective are they? So begins the musings of the latest episode of Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.

From giving out crappy birthday presents for a birthday that you'd forgotten about through to "failing" eyebrows (no, I'm not sure how that works either), a wide range of emergency measures are featured, including Kafuka's hilarious birthday song and some sticking plasters as counter-measures to those aforementioned examples. However, with the school inspection board due, even more emergency measures are required, which (as so often appears to be the case these days) concludes with Chiri killing everybody.

Next up is the problem of right answers which aren't right... In other words, situations where saying what is actually correct is more troubling that just making something up or an apathetic shrug. This segment of the episode allows for the series to sharpen its political knives somewhat by pointing out occasions where politicians and parties have blatantly avoided speaking the actual truth in the name of diplomacy. This line of thought then shifts onwards to more personal matters in a game run by Kafuka where it appears that the only way is down...

Finally, it's time for a round of golf for the girls, as Nozomu and Rin look to measure the "range" of various people to see how far they can go in a particular set of circumstances, be that how far they're willing to travel while wearing a sweatsuit or how far you can get without taking your mobile phone (an example ably demonstrated by Meru, complete with what I'd like to think was a tribute to Tokyo Magnitude 8.0's Yuuki).

Between those main episode segments, this instalment also managed to poke fun at Japan's economic stimulus plans (with Majiru using his cheque provided by the Japanese government to buy American-produced DVDs), and a discussion of the various "-tan"s (aka the anthropomorphism of inanimate object) doing the rounds at the moment, with characters fighting over which anime company they'd like to represent.

Overall, this episode was arguably at its best when it had its political satire head on, although there were plenty of amusing background references this time around to make up for any other shortfalls (including some not-so-subtle product placement for Hidamari Sketch and Natsu no Arashi and references to Bakemonogatari, which just so happen to be SHAFT-produced shows). Even when it isn't at its consistent best, you still can't go far wrong with this series, as ever.